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Archive for the ‘Canadian Music’ Category

Tonight in Vancouver at the fabulous Commodore Ballroom, the 3 finalists in The Peak Performance Project put on an stellar final showcase before the prizes were handed out. Many thanks are due to the Peak radio station for sponsoring and Music BC for facilitating this most welcome new, yearly addition to the Vancouver music scene. The bill featured We Are The City, The Left and Bend Sinister, with each band taking home a share of $275,000 at the end of the evening.

The final placement of each the bands went in the reverse order of the performances with Bend Sinister placing third and receiving $50,000, The Left finishing second, netting them $75,000 and We Are The City ending up the big winners, snagging $150,000. Were I to have my druthers, Bend Sinister would have come out on top, with We Are The City and The Left rounding out second and third place, but now is not a time for bitterness. It is one for celebration of the amazing talent that this region has musically and for the strong commercial viability it has as well.

A healthy round of applause to those who made this event happen and congratulations to all the bands.

Post Good Will Post Editorializing: I wrote earlier that now is a time for celebration and not bitterness, so I hope this does not come across as mean spirited; if you are like me and strongly believe that Bend Sinister should have placed, if not first in this competition, then most certainly came in second ahead of the Left, make sure to visit CBC Radio3, Canada’s Independent Music Superstation. The Peak is an amazing radio station that deserves nothing but plaudits for all the heavy lifting they have done in their first year of existence. They are however, still a very young entity. Radio3 is there pointing the way. They have been playing Bend Sinister for a few years now, and addition to each of the other finalists also having music available for the Radio3 webstream (which means you can listen to it on demand and add it to any number of your own personal playlists) many other Peak Performance Project participants like Adaline and Ben Sigston also have freed their music to R3. With Radio3 ‘Breaking New Sound’ and The Peak featuring our great Canadian talent in playlists that feature the biggest bands in the world, nothing but good things are possible. That is a public-private partnership that is very easy to get behind.

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The turning of the calendar from December to January will always bring out any number of lists that vary in their usefulness. One that I will happily pass along is a retrospectus of the decade that was 2000 through 2009 in

Grantius Augustus Lawrencius - Ensuring that Canada sparkles with amazing homegrown music

Canadian Independent music from CBC Radio3‘s Grant Lawrence. And what a seminal decade it was! This week and the next’s episodes of Grant’s extremely successful podcast feature his picks for the best Canadian Indie songs from 2000-2009. One of the first things Grant notes is how the great success of Canadian musicians both at home and abroad this past decade has allowed for vehicles like Radio3 to not only be formed, but thrive. Without further ado, here is the first half of the list, starting at number 20 (and get the podcast!):

#20 – The Wet Secrets – Secret March from 2007. You can purchase their album from Six Shooter records here.

The rest of the list is after the jump to avoid spoilers for any who might be interested and would like to simply listen to the whole podcast.